Imatges de pàgina
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And in Trachinia shall the funeral

pyre

Purge his mortalities away with fire;

And he shall mount amid the stars, and be

Acknowledged kin to those who envied thee,

And sent these den-born shapes to crush his destiny.".

Γαμβρὸς δ' ἀθανάτων κεκλήσεται, οἳ τάδ' ἐπῶρσαν
Κνώδαλα φωλέυοντα βρέφος διαδηλήσασθαι.

CATULLUS'S RETURN HOME

TO THE PENINSULA OF SIRMIO.

O BEST of all the scatter'd spots that lie
In sea or lake,-apple of landscape's eye,—
How gladly do I drop within thy nest,

With what a sight of full, contented rest,
Scarce able to believe my journey o'er,
And that these eyes behold thee safe once more!

PENINSULARUM, Sirmio, insularumque

Ocelle, quascunque in liquentibus stagnis
Marique vasto fert uterque Neptunus,

Quam te libenter, quamque lætus inviso,
Vix mi ipse credens Thyniam atque Bithynos
Liquisse campos, et videre te in tuto!

Oh where's the luxury like the smile at heart, When the mind, breathing, lays its load apart,When we come home again, tir'd out, and spread The loosen'd limbs o'er all the wish'd-for bed! This, this alone is worth an age of toil.

Hail, lovely Sirmio! Hail, paternal soil!

Joy, my bright waters, joy; your master's come! Laugh, every dimple on the cheek of home!

O quid solutis est beatius curis,

Cum mens onus reponit, ac peregrino

Labore fessi venimus larem ad nostrum,

Desideratoque acquiescimus lecto!

Hoc est quod unum est pro laboribus tantis.
Salve, O venusta Sirmio, atque hero gaude!
Gaudete, vosque Lydia lacus undæ !

Ridete, quidquid est domi cachinnorum!

THE

STORY OF CYLLARUS AND HYLONOME.

AN EPISODE FROM OVID'S BATTLE OF THE CENTAURS AND LAPITHE.

"PIRITHOUS having invited "the half-horsie people" to his wedding-feast, when he married Hippodamia, one of them was so inflamed with the beauty of the bride, that he started up in the midst of the drinking and carousing, and attempted to carry her off. Theseus, the friend of Pirithous, seized a great antique goblet, craggy with sculpture, and dashed his face to shatters with it, so that he died. The other Centaurs, seeing their brother killed, grew frantic for revenge, and a tremendous battle ensued. The whole account fills the ear and the imagination, like an enormous uproar. It is a gigantic hubbub, full of huge fists, hoofs, weapons, and flying furniture, chandeliers torn down, and tables snatched up, shrieks of females, and roarings and tramplings of men and half men. One of the Lapithæ makes nothing of rending away a door post that would load a waggon; and a Centaur tears up an altar with fire upon it, and sends it blazing among the enemy. The different modes in which the deaths are inflicted are as various as any in Homer; and the poet, with admirable propriety, has given his battle all the additional interest, which the novelty of the figures engaged in it could suggest.

"The episode of the two lovers comes out of all this turbulence, like the dropping of rain from the eaves after a thunder-storm. The measure in which the version is written, has been chosen as the most capable of expressing the alternate laxity and compression for which Ovid's style is remarkable. The translator found the heroic couplet hamper him, tending either to too great length or the reverse. With the old ballad measure before us, one may do as one pleases; and there is something in it that suits the simplicity of the affections."-Indicator, No. 26.

NOR could thy beauty, Cyllarus,
Protect thee in the fray ;'

If we may speak of shapes like thine

After a human way.

NEC te pugnantem tua, Cyllare, forma redemit,

Si modo naturæ formam concedimus illi.

His beard was in the flowery bud,

Touched, like his hair, with gold;
And down beneath his shoulder-blades

His tresses ran, and rolled.

An earnest cheer was in his look;

And every human part,

His neck, his shoulders, hands, and breast,
Matched with the proudest art.

Such was his look and shape, to where

The nether form began;

Nor where he put the courser on,

Dishonoured he the man.

Barba erat incipiens; barbæ color aureus; aurea
Ex humeris medios coma dependebat in armos :
Gratus in ore vigor; cervix, humerique, manusque,
Pectoraque artificum laudatis proxima signis,
Et qua parte vir est ; nec equi mendosa sub illo
Deteriorque viro facies: da colla, caputque,—

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